favorite caving experiences

[Gwaedh]

In the next session of the game I'm running my players will be hunting for buried (deep) treasure. I'd like to ask you to share your favorite underground moments. I'm looking for challenges of all sorts: terrain, environmental, side quests and so on.

I'm also looking for your thoughts on ways to keep them "moving in the right direction" while still maintaning the idea they are wandering thru a complex cave/underdark sysyem.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to share.

[Blueluck]

My favorite caving moments include a trip through a narrow, twisty, space called the "Birth Canal". In order to get through, you had to lay down on your belly and crawl down a vertical shoot about 10' long and just a bit wider than a man's shoulders. After passing the Birth Canal, the cave opened back up into a series of large chambers. Our guide collected everyone's lamps, had us grasp hands in a long chain, and play follow the leader in a circle a couple times to disorient us. Then we had to find our way out in pitch darkness.

Those were real-world experiences, but both could inform gaming scenarios. Making medium sized creatures squeeze in certain areas could be fun, especially if there were small or tiny enemies running around. Mapping in pitch darkness could be accomplished with areas blanketed in permanent Deeper Darkness, or Fog Cloud.

[Gwaedh]

No interesting stories? Are cave adventures just not alot of fun?

[Imbicatus]

The thing to remember about caves is that the are not man-made, and they can be very difficult to traverse. To use more real-world examples, there are several caves that have passages that can only be traversed by a crawl of several miles. sometimes, though an underground stream that is only a few inches deep. The problem is when there is a heavy rain, the excess water can make the entire passage flooded. Because of the length of the tunnel, if that happens you could drown.

There are also VERY deep pits that are too deep to be free-climbed. If you are not carrying 2000 feet of rope, you can't get to the bottom.
No with magic providing things like water-breathing and levitation/flight, pits and water hazards are more annoyances than fatal problems, but if you are not prepared going into a wild cave, then you can easily be injured or killed.

[Lincoln Hills]

I was in the Tzabnah caves once & got a number of impressions that I've used to enhance 'caving' campaigns since. (It helped that we were flashlights-only: this wasn't a popular tourist destination.) There were rifts too small for people to fit through, through which you could see chambers - often also too small for people. Just about right for Tiny humanoids, though... There was an awkward point where one had to traverse via ropes over a pit while going around a corner - it struck me as a good place for a surprise attack. ;) Almost every chamber had its pool - very clear, uncontaminated water. I was also particularly struck by one room - because it was the only chamber in the whole cave that had the sort of level flooring we take as standard in PF combats. ;)

But it can be hard to evoke the visceral impact of caving to people sitting in soft chairs and eating snacks. I generally stick with the most basic impressions: everything's slippery, everything's sloping, and the only noises are the ones you make yourself.